outcome of her mixed Estonian-Russian origins. The main problem: what kind of life can a “national hermaphrodite” lead? Neither this nor that, or the other way around – both this and that. How to classify herself living in a space governed by not the most amicable parties? In a space where the tradition of binary oppositions hasn’t disappeared even after having read Foucault?

Sugrierror.com is a play with Finno-Ugric actors who still speak their own language and know their traditional cultural space. What is the word for “love” in the Mari language? How does a Setu boy go to a kirmask (a summertime village dance party)? Do Estonians laugh at Ostyak jokes? What is it like to be a Vogul in Moscow? What does it mean to be an Estonian?

Yet the question is no longer how languages and culture are preserved. The question is: for how much longer and will they be preserved at all?

“It attempts to find a theatrical language in the rituals that are still alive: for instance, the Setu saajad (wedding), the Ostyak-Vogul wake for the bear slain by hunters, Mari prayers in the sacred groves, the Udmurtian funeral. The form of the play is like a glittering ornament worn on the chest by Finno-Ugric people forged by a sorcerer-blacksmith from meteorite iron or fen iron – moving, swinging, shimmering, playing in light, mood and wind, confusing fairies and gods, a fusion of heavy iron, good mood, white hands and a good heart.” That is what the authors have to say.

In contrast with the rest of our programme, this play looks eastward into our sombre subconsciousness. The actors are from beyond the Ural Mountains and from before them.